


breath

by jayyxx



Series: short & maybe unfinished [6]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: 2x9, M/M, also jack shitty cuddles, baby jack parse cuddles, poor bit just wants to help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 09:32:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8139148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayyxx/pseuds/jayyxx
Summary: Shitty tips his mouth. “Maybe you don’t miss him, but you miss the relationship?”
“Yeah.” Says Jack. “Probably.”





	

When Parse leaves, he takes all the breath in Jack’s lungs with him. 

He slams the door in Bitty’s face, because he was _listening,_ he heard _everything._ He collapses on the floor and puts his head between his knees, the same way Parse used to make him when his breaths hurt to take. Parse would rub between his shoulder blades, Jack’s face in his collar. He would whisper, _“it’s okay, Zimms, big breath, good job.”_

He tries to think, to remind himself he doesn’t care anymore. That he lost interest in that boy after his face fell blank against the bathroom’s tile floor. After he came in the hospital room, red eyed and cold. _”He’s been sleeping in the waiting room for two days, Jack,” said his mother, and so, Parse came in with his hat between his hands and his feet scoffing the floor. He stood by the door while the parents cleared out, and then he came to the bed._

_Jack didn't say a word. He kept his eyes down and pulled at his IV’s._

_“Don’t do that.” Parse had said, swatting his hands._

_“Hurts.” Is all he replied with, watching with a side eye as Parse sat on the end of the bed._

_He ducked to meet Jack’s eyes. They’re cold, he knows. Cold and dead, but Parse still looked at them with the same fascination he always had when he’s with Jack. Parse raised his eyebrows, looking for an answer to a question Jack didn’t even know._

_“Je t’aime,” said Parse. One of the only phrases Jack taught him. Jack looked away. “Toujours.”_

_“How can you?” Jack asked, looking at him square._

_“I don’t know.” Parse replied as he reached over to take Jack’s hand. Jack pulled back, and Parse had left with his heart in his throat._

_”Jack, please.”_ Bitty is begging, face against the other side of the door. Jack wants to scream, but then, Bitty is gone. Feet pounding as he runs over to the stairs and down them. Soon, he’s back with another pair of feet and Jack coils in. 

“J, c’mon, open up.” Shitty says and he feels himself sag. He pushes away from the door, just enough to open it and have Shitty step half way inside. “Dites-lui de partir.” Jack barks. 

Shitty couldn’t speak french if he wanted to, but his years of friendship with Jack has allowed him to pick up some key words. He turns to Bitty and says, silently, “give us a second.”

And Bitty’s feet leave; where he goes, Jack doesn’t know, or care. He was eavesdropping and now he knows and he’s never going to want to talk to him again. 

Shitty closes the door and sits on the floor beside him. “What did he say?”

Jack drops his head between his knees again. _”It’s okay, Zimms,”_

Shitty slides up beside him and pull Jack until he crumples into him. Head in his neck, whole body turned into him. He’s had to hold himself up for too long; he lets Shitty take some of the weight. 

He hushes him, hands rubbing into his shoulder and down his spine. It reminds him of how Parse used to hold him, and he starts to shake again. Shitty whispers “you’re alright, you’re okay,” but he shakes harder. He doesn’t want to cry, but he silently lets himself until he feels better—which takes a very long time.

Jack hates feeling this helpless. He pushes away from Shitty’s warm chest, though he wants to crawl inside and live forever within the walls of someone this caring. Shitty puts a hand on his cheek, slides to hold his neck. “What did he say?”

Jack steadies himself. “He misses me.”

Shitty makes a noise at the back of his throat. Disgust, confusion, hope, Jack doesn’t know. “Do you miss him?”

The question makes Jack rock back a little. He leans against the door and away until only their legs are twined. He looks Shitty in the eye, just for a moment, hoping he understands why he shrugs and turns to pull at his messy hair. 

“It’s okay if you do.” Shitty insures and that’s all Jack needs to nod and agree. Shitty tips his mouth. “Maybe you don’t miss him, but you miss the relationship?”

_When nights were bad, Parse would lay beside him. Jack would lay on his back and Kent would place a hand on his chest, making Jack lift it with his breath. “Will you stay tonight?” Jack would ask, turning to look at him. Kent would nod, and slide closer to press his face into Jack’s shoulder, wrapping an arm around him._

_In the night, they would tangle and separate. Sometimes, Jack would wake up with Kent on top of him, curled into him completely. Other times, he was pushed to the farthest corner of the bed, arms hanging off the edge._

_When his dad would come to wake him, he would wake Jack first. Shaking his shoulder, telling him to get up and come eat before practice, and leave suddenly. In the kitchen, with Jack making two bagels and two glasses of milk he would ask ‘why’s Parson in your bed like that?’ and Jack would say, ‘he helps, sometimes.’ and leave the kitchen silently._

_Kent liked to kiss him in the morning. Make up something about having to tell Jack a secret, pull him in by his neck and land one on him. Jack would always laugh, because the kid is dumb; he could just ask and Jack would give him anything he wanted, but instead he teases him by acting like he has to work for it._

“Yeah.” Says Jack. “Probably.”

_Kent would crawl over him in the early morning when no ones home, press his mouth to Jack’s and bite. Jack’s hands on his waist, Kent’s hands in his hair. They rocked like they haven't seen each other in months, when they've been together for weeks now._

Jack stands, leaving Shitty on the floor, blocking the door. His legs are wobbly as he walks to his bed, throws off his shoes and his belt, stripping his plaid shirt and throwing in on the floor. He flops into his bed and lies still until he hears Shitty get up and leave. He sleeps — not easily, but he sleeps.

**Author's Note:**

> bleh. 
> 
> parse says: "i love you." "always."   
> jack says: "tell him to leave." 
> 
> @ghostycas on tumblr. come say hello, id really like that..


End file.
